Tag: robocopy

This post will tell you how to preview the list of files that will be copied, before actually copying them.

The importance of previewing files

We like to have a preview of our documents and images before sharing or printing them or even saving the edits made. Then why not have a preview of the list of files that will be copied on your system?

You could easily exclude or include certain files forgotten or those not required. This not only saves your time and efforts but also a lot of space on your system. You can also filter them according to their date, size etc.

In this article we will show you how this is possible using the Windows Robocopy tool and an alternative software Copywhiz, which does the same thing in a much user friendly manner.

What is Copywhiz?

Enhance your file-copy experience with Copywhiz as it lets you to have more flexibility & more control over the file-copying process. Here is how Copywhiz makes file copying a breeze:

However, these Robocopy commands are not straightforward. System administrators may be able to use. But Robocopy may be quite confusing for common users. Instead, let me show you an easier and faster method.

Using Copywhiz

1. Select files using Windows Explorer, right-click on them and choose Copywhiz->Copy from the menu as shown below :

3. Click on the ” Preview” button located below in the right corner. The Preview Window will open

Here is how the Copywhiz Preview Window will look like:

All the files you selected will be listed down before you proceed with your file copy.

Conclusion

Copywhiz is an alternative that allows you to preview files before copying them and ensure that the right files are copied. This avoids mistakes and any incorrect files from being copied to make sure only the important files are copied. You can also use this feature to view the list of new & modified files in a folder.
Thus you stay safe and confident.

This post will brief you on how to skip errors and also turn off error prompts while copying files in Windows.

Frequent Error Pop-ups?

When copying a large number of files, we often see a window pop up telling that an error occurred while copying. Isn’t this very annoying? Wouldn’t it be great if instead of attending to every error message, you could skip that particular type of error and continue copying.

We will show you how this is possible with the Windows Robocopy tool and also an alternative software , Copywhiz.

What is Copywhiz?

Enhance your file-copy experience with Copywhiz as it lets you to have more flexibility & more control over the file-copying process. Here is how Copywhiz makes file copying a breeze:

Steps to continue file copy on error

Using Robocopy

Robocopy source destination [file [file]…] /r:n w:n command lets us to continue file-copying even if error occurs.
‘R’ is the retries on failed copies and ‘W’ is the waiting time between those retries. Also, n=the number of times of retry and waiting.

For Ex: To copy contents of ‘C:\project’ to the folder ‘D:\Backup’, while continuing to copy on errors, the following command line will be used:

However, Robocopy commands are not really straightforward. System administrators may be able to use. But Robocopy is quite confusing for common users.

Using Copywhiz

Watch a short video that perfectly depicts this feature:

When copying files, Copywhiz does not stop on an error. Instead it lets you retry or skip that particular file and proceed.

See the image below for more clarity:

Also, if a file is locked (like a file-in-use), Copywhiz will wait until you unlock the file. In fact, Copywhiz will show you which program is currently using the file so that you can close the program in order to continue with your file copy.

If the disk is full, Copywhiz will show you how much space you need to free in order to complete the operation successfully as shown below:

This post will show you how to exclude certain folders and continue copying files from the rest.

Excluding specific folders

Ability to exclude folders when copying files has several advantages. You can save disk space. You can get rid of unwanted and temporary files. You save time copying and backing up files. Handling of smaller file set is easier.

Let us see how to do this using Robocopy, and an alternative software , Copywhiz which does the same thing in a much user friendly manner.

What is Copywhiz?

Enhance your file-copy experience with Copywhiz as it lets you have more flexibility and control over the file-copying process. Here is how Copywhiz makes file copying a breeze:
• Copy only new or modified files
• Easily pick files by name, extension, folder etc from bunch of folders
• Copy files to multiple folders/computers
• Copy files from multiple folders and paste them at once
• Pick files from multiple folders and compress in single .zip file
• Schedule file backups
• Several more hidden nuggets designed to make your file-copy task easier.

An image depicting one of the features of Copywhiz

Steps to exclude specific folders when copying files

Using Robocopy

Robocopy Source Destination/XD dirs [dirs]… command lets us to specify a list of directories (folders) containing strings to be excluded. These strings are not entered directly in the command switch. They are one or more text files that list the strings to be excluded.

For Ex: To copy files from “projects” folder to the folder “backup”, by excluding certain type of folders, say, the ones having your personal information, the following command line will be used:

Robocopy c:\projects c:\backup xd list-of-excluded-folders

But these Robocopy commands are not straightforward. System administrators may be able to use. Robocopy is quite difficult for common users. Instead, let me show you an easier and faster way to do this.

Using Copywhiz

Watch a short video describing this feature:

Video Transcription

1. Go to Windows File Explorer, select the files from the source folder, right-click and choose Copywhiz–>Copy as shown below:

2. Go to the destination folder, right click and choose Copywhiz–> Paste Advanced. The Advanced Settings dialogue box will open.

3. You can include or exclude files/folders to be copied by typing their names, file extensions or folder names. You can then select the “Exclude folders” option. You can also preview the list of files that will be copied and files that will be skipped by clicking on the Preview button. After confirming, press the OK button in the Advanced Settings dialog box.

4. Click on “OK” and then “Paste Now” to complete file copying.

Conclusion

Copywhiz lets you choose which type of files to copy and which to ignore – i.e, it lets you to do ‘Selective File Copy’. Pick only those files and folders that are important and avoid the ones not required with Copywhiz. Easily filter files by name, extension, folder etc. from a bunch of folders.

Complete big file copy tasks with just a few clicks and save manual effort with Copywhiz.

Steps to copy only changed files (new and modified)

Using Robocopy

The Robocopy command Robocopy Source [Destination] /XO :[YYYYMMDD] copies all Source files changed on or after the specified date only. This command-line option allows you to update files that have changed.

For Ex: To copy all the files in the directory ‘E:data’ that are modified on or after 1 st January 2018 to the folder ‘E:\backup’, the following command line will be used:

However, commands like Robocopy are not straightforward. System administrators may be able to use. But common users will find it difficult. Instead, I will show you how to do it very quickly/easily using Copywhiz.

Using Copywhiz

Here is a short video that depicts how to do it easily in Windows using Copywhiz:

Video Transcription

1. Go to Windows File Explorer, select the files from the source folder, right-click and choose Copywhiz–>Copy as shown below:

2. Right-click inside the destination folder where you wish to copy the files and select Copywhiz–>Paste Advanced.

This post will help you in excluding certain files of your choice from being copied.

Why exclude specific files?

By default, any copy program will copy everything (all the files) from the folder that you specify as the source. But, at times, we would like to filter and include only specific files. For Ex: Copy only pictures and not videos, only source code files and not object files, all documents except PDF files and so on.

In this particular post, we will talk about this by comparing Robocopy to an alternative software , Copywhiz.

What is Copywhiz?

Enhance your file-copy experience with Copywhiz as it lets you have more flexibility and control over the file-copying process. Here is how Copywhiz makes file copying a breeze:

However, Robocopy commands are not really straightforward. System administrators may be able to use. But Robocopy is really confusing for common users.

Let me now show you an easier and faster way to do this.

Using Copywhiz

Copywhiz makes this very user friendly. Watch a short video depicting this feature:

Video Transcription

1. Go to Windows File Explorer, select the files from the source folder, right-click and choose Copywhiz–>Copy as shown below:

2. Go to the destination folder, right click and choose Copywhiz–> Paste Advanced. The Advanced Settings dialogue box will open.

3. You can include or exclude files/folders to be copied by typing their names, file extensions or folder names. You can also preview the list of files that will be copied and files that will be skipped by clicking on the Preview button. After confirming, press the OK button in the Advanced Settings dialog box. All the required files will be copied successfully.

Conclusion

Copywhiz lets you to choose which type of files to copy & which to ignore – i.e, it lets you to do ‘Selective File Copy’. Easily filter files by name, extension, folder etc from a bunch of folders. You can complete big file copy tasks with few clicks & save manual effort with Copywhiz.

This post will tell you how to copy only new files from the day/date you want.

The benefits of copying only new files

We often spend a lot of our precious time in copying the same set of files everyday or every fewer days in order to take backups. It would be very convenient if we could copy only those files that have been newly added or recently modified after a particular day or date.

Let us look at how this is possible using Robocopy and an alternative software Copywhiz, which does the same thing in a much user friendly manner.

What is Copywhiz?

Enhance your file-copy experience with Copywhiz as it lets you to have more flexibility & more control over the file-copying process. Here is how Copywhiz makes file copying a breeze:

Steps to copy newer files based on date

Using Robocopy

The Robocopy command Robocopy Source [Destination] /maxage:n (where n can be number of days or date of format YYYYMMDD) copies all source files that are newer than the date specified.

For Ex: To copy all the files in the directory ‘E:\data’ that have been added or modified on or after 1st JAN 2018 to the folder ‘E:\backup’, the following command line will be used:

Robocopy / E:\data E:\backup/MAXAGE:20180101

However, these commands are quite confusing and may not be easy to understand for most users. It is easy to achieve this using Copywhiz which is really straightforward and faster.

Using Copywhiz:

Watch a short video that perfectly depicts this feature:

Video Transcription

1. Right-click on the folder from which only new or modified files need to be copied and choose Copywhiz–>Copy from the menu as shown below:

2. Go to the destination folder, right-click on it and select Copywhiz–>Paste Advanced. The advanced settings dialogue box will open.

3. Select the date option as shown in below picture.

Conclusion

This feature is very useful while sharing/uploading only recently modified files, taking backups of just new and modified files especially when there are several files to copy. Thus, Copywhiz proves to be a total saver.

This post will show you how to copy files only of the size (small or large) you want, allowing you to exclude files not needed.

Why filter files based on size?

We would sometimes not want files that are too large or sometimes we may require only large files to be copied. Whatever may be the case, the basic idea is to select the files to be copied only based on their sizes.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could actually do that without much time and efforts? Instead of copying all the files and later deleting the ones not required, you can just skip copying files not required altogether.

Let us look at how this is possible with Windows Robocopy tool and an alternative software Copywhiz.

What is Copywhiz?

Enhance your file-copy experience with Copywhiz as it lets you have more flexibility & more control over the file-copying process. Here is how Copywhiz makes file copying a breeze:

• Copy only new or modified files
• Easily pick files by name, extension, folder etc. from a bunch of folders
• Copy files to multiple folders/computers
• Copy files from multiple folders and paste them at once
• Pick files from multiple folders and compress in single .zip file
• Schedule file backups
• Several more hidden nuggets designed to make your file-copy task easier.

Steps to copy files based on size

Using Robocopy

The Robocopy command Robocopy source [destination] /max:n lets you set the maximum limit on a file size. Which means files larger than the mentioned size would not be copied.

Similarly the command Robocopy source [destination] /min:n lets you set the minimum file size limit so that files smaller than the mentioned size would not be copied.

For ex: to exclude files larger than 10 KB when copying files from “projects” folder to “backup” folder , you will apply the following command :

Robocopy d:\temp\projects e:\backup /xf max:10kb

Similarly for ex: to exclude files smaller than 10 KB when copying files from “projects” folder to “backup” folder , you will apply the Command :

Robocopy d:\temp\projects e:\backup /xf min:10kb

However, these Robocopy commands are quite difficult to understand and use by common users. Only system administrators find it easy.

Let me show you a much easier and straightforward method.

Using Copywhiz

Watch a short video depicting this feature:

Video Transcription

1. Select files using Windows Explorer, right-click on them and choose Copywhiz->Copy from the menu as shown below :

2. Go to the destination folder, right-click inside the folder and select Copywhiz–>Paste special–>Paste files by name or type as shown below:

3. The Advanced Settings dialog box will open. You can include or exclude files/folders to be copied by typing /selecting file size. You can also preview the list of files that will be copied and files that will be skipped by clicking on the Preview button. After confirming, press the Ok button in the Advanced Settings dialog box. All the required files will be copied successfully.

4. Click on “OK” and then “Paste Now”. Your files will instantly be copied.

Conclusion

As you have seen above, When copying files using Copywhiz, you can exclude or include specific types of files/folders. You gain more control over what is being copied. With few clicks, you complete big file copy tasks & save manual effort.

You can avoid files that are not required like those files that occupy too much space and only pick files that are important.

Conclusion

Copywhiz is an alternative that allows you to create the complete directory (folder) structure without copying files in them. This feature can be useful in multi-users scenario where the system administrator wishes to create the same standard template folder structure without files for different users from an existing structure.

This post will tell you how to exclude certain files from being copied based on the last time you accessed them on Windows PC.

Why exclude files?

There may be a set of files you wouldn’t have used for a long time. Since you do not access them that frequently, it makes no sense to copy them every time with your other regular files.

But we often do not know how to exclude such files from being copied. Doing this manually is not practically possible.

But this is now possible. Let us find out how to do it using Robocopy, a Windows tool an an alternative software, Copywhiz.

What is Copywhiz?

Enhance your file-copy experience with Copywhiz as it lets you have more flexibility and control over the file-copying process. Here is how Copywhiz makes file copying a breeze:

• Copy only new or modified files
• Easily pick files by name, extension, folder etc from bunch of folders
• Copy files to multiple folders/computers
• Copy files from multiple folders and paste them at once
• Pick files from multiple folders and compress in single .zip file
• Schedule file backups
• Several more hidden nuggets designed to make your file-copy task easier.

An image depicting one of the features of Copywhiz

Steps to filter files based on their last access

Using Robocopy

The Robocopy command Robocopy Source [Destination] /MAXLAD:n[YYYYMMDD] is used to depict the maximum last access date which means it excludes files unused since ‘n’. Here, n is either days or the exact date whichever you find convenient.

For example: While copying files from the folder “projects” to the folder “backup”, if you want to exclude files that have not been accessed since 10 JAN 2018:

Robocopy c:\projects c:\backup /maxlad:20180110

Similarly, you can even exclude frequently used files from being copied. This is when you have large number of unused files that you need to keep aside as a mere record.

Again, Robocopy can do this using the command Robocopy source [destination] /minlad:n[YYYYMMDD] which depicts the minimum last access days which means it will exclude files used since the specified day/date.

For example: If you want to exclude files accessed since 10 JAN 2018:

Robocopy /minlad: [20180110]

will be used.

Even though Robocopy does it for you, these commands are not easy to use. System administrators use it. But Robocopy is not straightforward for common users.

I will now show you an easier and faster method.

Using Copywhiz

1. Select files using Windows Explorer, right-click on them and choose Copywhiz->Copy from the menu as shown below :

Steps to copy files in new folder each time

Video Transcription

1. Select the files to be copied from the Source folder and right-click on it and choose Copywhiz–>Copy as shown below:

2. Right-click inside the destination folder where you wish to copy the files and select Copywhiz–>Paste Advanced: >

3. Copywhiz window will open with the destination folder already selected. You can suffix the destination folder with %date% or %datetime% to add current date to the folder name.

4. Once the variables are added, click on ‘Paste Now’ and it will automatically create a new folder based on the current date.

5. You can save the selected files as a Copywhiz project and schedule a backup of the same set of files by clicking on ‘Paste later (Schedule)’ button.

Once clicked, the following Window will appear that will let you to set your preferred backup frequency.

After setting your preferred frequency click on ‘Schedule Now’ so that Copywhiz automatically run the projects at a specified time for taking backups.

Conclusion

Copywhiz is an alternative that lets you create a new destination folder (date-wise) for every file backup. This way you can ensure that multiple versions of your backups are maintained.

It uses Windows Task Scheduler to schedule your backups. Configure Copywhiz to copy files at a particular time. Using Copywhiz’s scheduling capability you can backup your files every week, every day or even every hour.